Acer America today announced the Oct. 26th availability of its Acer Aspire S7 Touch Ultrabook Series in North America. The Acer S7 series are Windows 8-based touch Ultrabooks to debut this holiday season. As thin as a tablet, the Aspire S7 has a simple, clean design with glossy white glass, glowing light and anodized aluminum. Here's more info on this upcoming Ultrabook series from Acer:

Featuring Windows 8 and a 10-point touch screen, navigating between applications is natural and intuitive, making computing easier, faster and more convenient. Other key features include 3rd Generation Intel Core processors, solid state drives and up to 12 hours of battery life with second optional battery.

All models in the S7 Series feature a unibody design made from a single block of aluminum, so their chassis are ultra-thin, super tough and ideal for the road. All models in the S7 Series feature full high definition IPS 10-point displays with 1920 x 1080 resolution. In addition, wide viewing angle technology provides consistent and accurate color from viewing angles up to 178 degrees.

One of the most striking design elements of the Aspire S7 is the elegant white design on the S7-391 models featuring a 13.3-inch touch screen display. The full high-definition screen is surrounded by a glossy white Gorilla Glass 2 cover that is smooth to the touch, beautiful to the eye, thin yet super strong, scratch-resistant and easy-to-clean. Not only is it visually striking, it provides structural strength, yet is flexible enough to handle the routine impacts of daily use. Furthering its durability, Acer included a thin, soft cushion of material between the aluminum frame and the Gorilla Glass, so if the S7 is dropped, the impact will mainly be absorbed by the chassis and not the glass. This greatly reduces chance of significant damage.

The smaller and lighter S7-191 model includes an 11.6-inch high definition touch screen, and features an all-aluminum unibody and aluminum cover with an elegant cross direction brushed finish. The result is a very unique high-end pattern, with the surface resembling an elegant textured fabric. It looks beautiful and feels smooth to the touch, but also adds to its durability and repels messy finger prints and smudges.

To ensure the S7 stays running cool, Acer created a new thermal solution called "TwinAir" cooling, an innovative thermal design that extends battery life and keeps the Ultrabook cool and comfortable to use. Two small high-speed (10,000 rpm) thermal fans are used; one to pull in cool air, while another releases hot air. The placement of the fans also ensures the warmest components are kept away from users' fingertips.

The unique design of the S7 and its touch screen capabilities inspired Acer engineers to re-think the traditional keyboard. Acer incorporated an electroluminescent (El) backlit keyboard which automatically turns on and off and adjusts its brightness level based on the ambient lighting. This light sensing backlit keyboard is one of the thinnest backlit solutions currently available, and is optimized for visual comfort and easy visibility in dim environments. The electroluminescent lighting offers a gentler and more comfortable light than LED backlit keyboards.

Despite its ultra-thin design, the Aspire S7 includes powerful technologies including 3rd Generation Intel Core i5-3317UB or i7-3517U processors and solid state drives in a RAID 0 configuration for extremely fast read/write times. An embedded Li-Polymer battery provides up to 6 hours of battery life, and an optional second battery doubles computing time up to 12 hours.

In addition, the S7 ships with a micro HDMI to VGA cable for use with projectors for presentations, a USB to RJ45 port for connecting to a wired network and a carrying case.

Pricing and AvailabilityThe Aspire S7 Series starts at $1,199 for the 11.6-inch model and $1,399 for the 13.3-inch model. The Aspire S7 series will be available for purchase on October 26 at leading retailers across North America.